I Love You
by hersheygal
Summary: It was three simple words. He knew that. He only wished he could have said them to someone else first. JeanneTony and hints of Tate. Set after Grace Period.


I Love You

Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS.

A/N: This is my first NCIS fic so I hope this is okay!

"I love you Jeanne." Tony whispered again as he held her in his arms

Ever since she had challenged him with asking him to say he loved her, Tony had been battling with himself over old feelings.

When Kate had been alive, he had taken her for granted. She was always around, always ready to complain about something obnoxious Tony had done. Little did Tony know, that he had valued all of those times she had complained about him.

Over time Tony had gotten over Kate's death, but he would still wake up at night sometimes with visions of the bullet in her head. He didn't know if Kate had ever had the feelings he had for her, but he would give anything to be able to go back and apologize for being such a jerk all of the time. But he knew that she was gone, and he had to move on. Gibbs had moved on, Abby had moved on. He felt like he was the only one that still dwelt on Kate's death.

Meeting Jeanne had been the best thing that had ever happened to him. She changed him. Even Ziva had noticed that something was different. He was experiencing something he had never experienced before, true love. He really did love her, and now that Paula had died, he didn't want to wait another day to tell her. He hated seeing Jeanne upset, and it hurt that he was the cause of it.

"I love you too Tony." Jeanne kissed his cheek and started to pull away, but Tony kept her close.

"I mean it."

"I know you mean it."

"I'm serious Jeanne, I love you."

Jeanne pulled away and looked at Tony right in the eyes. "I know. It's okay."

"I'm sorry I didn't say it sooner. I just.."

"I understand. You don't have to explain yourself to me."

"Yeah. Yeah I do. I've been avoiding it, and it's not fair to you."

Jeanne searched his gaze. She knew there was something wrong. "What happened?"

"It was just something at work. It doesn't matter."

"Tell me."

Tony shook his head. "I don't want to talk about it."

Jeanne nodded, biting her lip. "Come in."

Tony looked around and then he walked into the house with her. "How was your day?"

Jeanne smiled. "Okay. I missed you."

"Of course you missed me. What's a day without me to bug you?" Tony grinned.

"I missed the bugging."

"I'm going to hold you to that, you know." Tony wrapped his arms around her and she leaned against him. "I missed this."

Jeanne rolled her eyes. "You're not getting any tonight."

"I don't want anything!" Tony insisted, pretending to be hurt.

"Uh huh. Sure you don't."

"Your house is a mess." Tony commented.

"If you help me clean it up maybe we'll do something." Jeanne winked at him as she pulled away and walked to the kitchen.

"Like what?"

"Well.. I was about to take a bath. I'd love to have someone accompany me." Jeanne hinted.

Tony slowly started to grin. "I'm up for that."

They started to clean the place up, with small flirtations here and there.

Tony was picking up tissues from the coffee table while Jeanne was dusting the stereo system.

"There's a lot of tissues. Did you have a cold or something?"

"Sometimes I wonder why I love you so much." Jeanne threw a cd cover at his head, and Tony quickly picked up a pillow to dodge it. "Love me?" Tony threw the pillow at her.

Jeanne caught the pillow. "Yeah. Love you."

Tony smiled and walked over to her, gently putting his arms around her waist and pulling her to him as he gave her a long kiss.

"I missed that too." Jeanne murmured, getting lost in the kiss.

"I love you." Tony pulled away for a second and gave her a smile that she found hard to resist.

"Come on." She pulled on his coat and took him into her bedroom.

"What about the house?"

"The house can wait."

Tony grinned and kicked the bedroom door closed behind him, not having a care in the world.

A/N: Please let me know if I did okay or if I didn't do all that great. It would mean a lot!


End file.
